Just What is a Raw Meat Diet, Anyway?

All cats, small or large, are true carnivores, obligate carnivores. This means they must eat meat to survive. Cats cannot be vegetarians. Because they evolved to fill this top predator niche, their bodies are specifically geared for processing a prey-based diet. This is as true for a tiger as it is for the cat on your lap.

Raw feeding is a way to feed cats a more natural diet. By natural we mean bio-appropriate. A diet that fits their true nutritional requirements. The benefits to your cat are enormous. And it isn't hard at all. Raw diets can be readily purchased frozen at the more enlightened pet stores, purchased online and delivered right to your door, or if you are a do-it-yourselfer, it can also be made at home. See "Making Raw Cat Food For Do It Yourselfers."

A Cat's Diet in the Wild

Why should we pay attention to what a cat would eat in the wild? Because cats really aren't domesticated. Humans haven't changed cats much at all. We haven't messed with their basic form and indeed value them for their wild abilities i.e. hunting rodents. It is only recently that we have tried to feed cats a processed, carbohydrate filled diet. It is no coincidence that this same period also exhibited a dramatic increase in disease and obesity in cats.

In the wild, cats eat whole, raw prey. Their diet includes mice, rats, any other small rodents available, rabbits, insects, amphibians and birds. They usually eat the whole animal, meat, bones, brains, organs and fur. Their systems are uniquely set up to metabolize this diet which is high in moisture, high in protein and very low in carbohydrates. Because this is the diet they have relied upon for tens of thousands of years, they do not have the ability to process carbohydrates very well. Cats get most of their energy requirements from glucose their livers process from protein, not carbohydrates.¹ Not only are carbohydrates hard for your cat's system to handle, but they are also detrimental to your cat's health.² Think about that the next time you see pretty pictures of grains and vegetables on the front of a bag of commercial cat food.

Many of the nutrients cats need must come from animal sources. Arachidonic acid, an essential fatty acid, is found only in meat. Cats must consume preformed vitamin A from animal sources because, unlike dogs or humans, they do not have the ability to make it from plant derived beta carotene.³Taurine is essential for cats and is only found in meat sources, not plants. A taurine deficiency can cause blindness and heart problems.⁴ Taurine is also found in high levels in insects.⁵

You might worry about salmonella. Of course salmonella is out there, but as with meat you would prepare for yourself, following safe handling practices minimizes the risk. Cats are very resistant to bacteria such as salmonella, which makes sense for an animal that evolved to exclusively eat raw meat. Their stomachs are much more acidic than a human's. They have very short digestive tracts; shorter than any other comparably sized mammal. Food normally passes through their systems in about 12 hours. This doesn't give bacteria enough time to proliferate and make the cat sick. Compare that to humans, where food takes 36-48 hours to pass through, and you can see why humans are much more susceptible to bacterial pathogens. Parasites are killed by freezing the food. Almost all recalls due to salmonella or other contamination in pet food involved canned or dry foods. A recall in 2007 that sickened about 78 people with salmonella was traced to dry pet food. Interestingly, none of the animals that ate it got sick.⁶

From Your Cat: Simple New Secrets to a Longer, Stronger Life by Elizabeth Hodgkins, DVM: "If there can be no fundamental objection to the mere idea of raw meat as a diet for the cat, what legitimate objections might there be about the practical aspect of feeding raw meat to felines? The first objection would be the possibility of food poisoning from bacterial contamination of the meat. While this is certainly a possibility, just as food poisoning of humans who eat raw meat (I love sushi and sashimi!) is always at least a possibility, the reality is highly controllable and overstated, in my opinion and the opinion of many others. Human-grade ground and whole raw meats for pets are available today because of the growing popularity of the practice of among pet owners, such as Feline's Pride. These meats are handled carefully by the processor, and frozen immediately after processing."

A Healthy Alternative

"There is only one best cat in the world, and every family owns it." — Unknown

Your cats are part of your family, and of course you want what is best for them. There is growing evidence that feeding dry food causes many of the diseases that cats are suffering from in ever larger numbers.⁷ Diet plays a huge role in the health of your animals, so choosing a diet that reflects what a cat would eat in the wild makes a lot of sense. Feeding a balanced raw diet is feeding a healthy diet. Cats' systems are perfected to handle just this kind of food.

Raw diets, whether commercial or homemade, usually consist of ground meat, bone and organs, along with eggs, water and supplements. Ideally, your cat should also get some raw meaty bones, given whole. Some commercial raw diets include vegetable matter, but this is usually a very small amount of around 1-5%. Notice that grain is completely absent. Cats are not cows. Grain has no place in a cat's diet. Dry food and low quality canned food are mostly grain. The goal is to get as close as we can to a prey based diet without having to resort to live prey.

Meat

Many different kinds of meat can be used in raw food. In fact, you should vary the kinds of meat you feed, not only for variety, but also to be sure your cat gets a balanced diet. The important difference between most raw food companies and the rest of the pet food industry is that raw food is made with human-grade meat, frequently free-range and sometimes organic. Raw food products do not use any rendered ingredients or meat meals.

Chicken, turkey and rabbit are favorites. You can also find duck, pheasant, Cornish game hen, quail, venison and even ostrich. Surprisingly, even though cats would never hunt deer, wild venison is very close nutritionally to a cats' natural prey.⁸ Most people try to feed meat that is close to what cats would naturally be eating, so meat such as beef (which can cause allergic reactions in some cats), lamb and pork are used less often. Fish should be avoided, except for occasional use, for many reasons including: heavy metal contamination, vitamin E depletion and the fact that cats get addicted to it because of its strong taste.⁹

Bone

Raw bone, unlike what many people think, is highly digestible and provides calcium, minerals and enzymes. The marrow is nutrient rich. It is only cooked bone that is dangerous; cooking makes bone sharp, brittle and almost impossible to digest.¹⁰ In addition to including the bone in ground food, small cuts of meat with bones such as chicken wings or Cornish hens can be given to cats. Once they catch on to the idea, they will eat the whole thing, bone and all. It's great for their teeth and jaws, besides being nutritious.

Raw diets try to balance the meat to bone ratio to match that of a wild diet, usually mouse or rabbit. This balances the calcium to phosphorus ratio. Cats cannot live on just meat, and their calcium source is ideally from bone, not a supplement, as bone provides other minerals such as copper and zinc, along with collagen.¹¹

Organ Meat

Organ meats, such as liver and kidney, contain key ingredients your cat needs: B vitamins, vitamin A, amino acids and essential fatty acids. Heart is a particularly good source of taurine, a vital amino acid. Heart is usually counted as muscle meat for raw feeding purposes though, not as organ meat. Both commercial and homemade raw diets usually add taurine as a supplement, even when fresh heart is included, to be sure of providing enough of this essential amino acid.

Egg

Eggs provide valuable protein and are a source of vitamin A, and essential amino acids such as taurine and arginine.

Water

Water is added because a cats' natural prey is 65-75% water. Cats evolved in dry climates and depended on the prey they ate as a primary source of water, so their thirst drive is not strong. Cats need to have water in their food to stay properly hydrated.¹²

Supplements

This is perhaps the wrong word to use, as they aren't just supplemental, they are required. These are added to make up for the fact that usually the whole animal is not being used, and that grinding and freezing does cause some loss of nutrients. Supplements added include taurine, B vitamins, vitamin E and essential fatty acids. Many of these are found in the head of the animal, specifically in brains and eyes, and the head is not always included in the mix. Ever wonder why a cat eats the head of the mouse first? He knows what's good for him!

Why Raw Instead of Cooked?

So why not just cook it? Cooking degrades nutrients in meat, causing losses of vitamins, minerals and amino acids. Cooking also transforms nutrients, changing their chemical composition and making them less bioavailable to your cat.¹³ Cooking bone locks the minerals in place. This makes the minerals unavailable and causes bone to splinter easily, which is very dangerous. Canned cat food manufacturers add these vitamins and minerals back in after the product is cooked to make up for this loss.¹⁴ This supplementation is not exact, and there are nutrient losses which aren't recognized or replaced. Feeding the food raw is the best way to be sure your cat is getting the most from his food.

Switching to a raw diet allows you to know what you are feeding your cat. You will feel much more comfortable knowing the wholesomeness of each ingredient you feed your cat, rather than worrying about some vague or misleading description on a label. You don't want your cat to be eating food not fit for human consumption, or some mystery meat meal. Look at the ingredient list on a package of frozen raw food. You will see meat first on the list, then the other whole ingredients and supplements. No preservatives, by-products or fillers.

If your cat is on immune suppressing drugs or is diabetic, you should discuss a change in diet with your veterinarian before proceeding. Immune suppressing drugs can interfere with a cat's natural ability to deal with food pathogens. Many diabetic cats can benefit enormously from a raw diet, greatly reducing or eliminating the need for insulin. It must be done with careful monitoring as diet can dramatically and immediately affect the amount of insulin required, risking overdose.¹⁵